EVALUATION OF ENZYMIC AND NON-ENZYMIC ANTIOXIDANT LEVELS IN VERNONIA CINEREA EXTRACTS

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the enzymic and non-enzymic antioxidant levels in various solvent extracts of Vernonia cinerea leaves.Methods: The fine powder of leaf (180 g) was extracted successively with methanol, ethanol, petroleum ether (40–60°C), benzene, acetone, ethyl acetate, chloroform, and aqueous in a Soxhlet extractor for 18 h. The extracts were concentrated under reduced pressure at low temperature (40– 50°C), and the extracts were analyzed for the antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidise, glutathione S-transferase (GST), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), polyphenol oxidase, glutathione (GSH) reductase, and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and non-enzymic antioxidants such as Vitamin A, C, E, reduced GSH, and total phenol.Results: Significant activities of enzymic antioxidants such as CAT (23.68 μ mole of H2O2 decomposed/min/mg protein, SOD (19.75 inhibition of 50% nitrite form/min/mg protein), and GST (73.28 μ mole of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene conjugate formed/min) were observed higher in the methanolic extracts. Whereas, ethanolic extract exhibits maximum activity of GPx (1.054 μ mole of GSH utilized/min) and Px (102.1 μ mole of pyrogallol oxidized/ min/mg protein). Total GSH (172.3 μM/g), Vitamin E (23.76 μM/g), and total phenols were significantly predominant in the ethanolic extracts followed by methanol and ethyl acetate extracts.Conclusion: V. cinerea seems to be a promising plant in respect of its antioxidant potential, there is a lot more to be done to understand the mechanisms behind these effects as well as to employ them as possible therapeutic agents